An issue that has raised my attention for a long time has yet to be acknowledged, the notion of final examinations in high schools.
I do not believe that provincial exams are a true reflection of a student’s academic ability, but more or less the prospect of failure for some students.
According to the Princeton, a “final exam” is defined as: “an examination administered at the end of an academic term” The purpose of the final exam is to make a final review of the topics covered and assessment of each student's knowledge of the subject. A final is technically just a greater form of a "unit test". They have the same purpose, finals are just larger.
For one, I have found from personal experience that there are a multitude of factors that affect one’s ability to think and impair one’s sense of reasoning and logic while completing an exam.
First is timing. I do not believe that students are allowed a fair allotted amount of time to complete the exam. The standard time is 1 ½ to 2 hours Especially because of the fact that the standard period time is approximately 75 minutes, or 1 hour 15 minutes, I do not see how a student is expected to finish a 20 page exam, more or less a 3 page test during that time. Most students are barely able to complete a standard sized test in that time. I believe that the allotted amount of time to complete exams should be increased by at least a factor of 1-2 hours. Or even if an exam could acquire the whole day (8:00am-3:00pm) to write, this might allow students to take their time completing it, which will in the end, cause them to most likely do better and get a higher mark.
Secondly is spacing. I do not find it acceptable for a student to have to write the exam in a classroom full of 20+ other students. This can cause a greater increase of cheating because of the close proximity of each student (which is on average less than one meter apart). Also, some students find it difficult to concentrate when there are other people in the same room. Therefore, it should only be fair that any student that wishes to conduct their exam in a separate room should be allowed to without issue. This rule should not only apply to students who have an IEP (Individual Education Plan), as it is not fair to other students that do not have a recognized learning disability (such as Autism or ADD), but rather disorders (such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder) that affect their judgement and ability to conduct their exams in an appropriate manner the same way a learning disability does.
Another issue is pressure. It is very difficult for a student to handle the pressure of exams, much less a student with a mental health or learning disorder which impairs their ability to think in a normal manner. With the rising about of suicide rates and mental illness in teenagers, this just causes teenagers, especially those with mental health issues to slowly break down and become socially withdrawn from society out of fear that they will fail their exams. Nowadays, it seems that some students put too much pressure on themselves trying to excel in their academics and at school in general. The reason for each student varies, however the most common reasons tend to be: the need to impress their parents, out of fear of failure and disappointment, and the need to acquire a scholarship due to financial issues.
A year ago, I got extremely sick from Bacterial Pneumonia, and as a result missed 3 weeks of school. I fell behind in a lot of my courses and missed units of work. When my mother called the school to explain what had happened, they did not fully comprehend the situation. After the fact that I got 4 doctor’s notes, excusing me from writing exams, the school still said that I had to write the exam. The fact of the matter is that according to provincial standards, it states that: “Medical certificates are required for illness preventing a student from participating. Any other special circumstances requiring a student to miss a final evaluation task must be approved by the administration in advance”. We handed in the first note 2 weeks before exams started (about a week after I was hospitalized). On top of the fact that my averages in all my classes were above 80%, I at the time did not see the point to taking an exam that I should have been exempt from in the first place. I ended up writing the exams because of the threat that the school enforced stating that they would not allow me to pass my grade ten year.
The fact is that many teachers often begin exam preparation about 3-4 days (one week at the most) before the actual date of the exam. This causes students to “cram” and rush to try to study. It has been proven that short-term memory doesn't have enough space to store all the necessary material to know for exams. Also, cramming stupefies long-term memory (where well-learned material lives), and it can set students up for panic and "blanking." This including the fact that some teachers actually start to teach new concepts to students 3-4 days before the actual exam just causes for memory overload and the inability for a student to absorb the necessary knowledge they need. And on top of the fact that the average human being only remembers 10% of what they learn, just proves that many students most likely forget most of the stuff they are taught anyway. So what does it prove by making a student try to write a 10-25 page long exam filled with concepts that they can’t even remember. And especially the fact that they are only given two hours to do it just makes it that much more redundant.
An alternative that I would suggest is going back to the old way of 1980’s, determining whether or not a student has to write an exam based on their term average. A term average of 80-85% should allow for an optional exemption from final exams. Or another option is to simply offer an alternate assignment/final project in which the student can choose which they would prefer to do. It would be like an exam (making the student apply their knowledge of the concepts learned from the course), without the pressure of time. It would reduce the amount of stress the student would have to endure while also allowing the student to expand their creativity and knowledge into applying into the assignment. Finally, the option of enforcing a “take-home final” in the Ontario curriculum could be considered. A take-home final is an exam at the end of a semester that is usually too long or complex to be completed in a single session. There is usually a deadline for completion, such as within one or two weeks of the end of the semester. A take-home final differs from a final paper.
It has been proven that even though a student does not seem to have a high academic ability, that they might actually be gifted in other manners (aka: Albert Einstein.) This is why we should not enforce such a strict standard on manners such as final exams, but rather the manner of catering each individual student’s abilities and to not teach “by the book” and expect every student to learn the same way.
